NSl - No tickets - no kidding

pircture credit www.verydemotivational.com

On 17 March 2012 the Guardian printed a whole page dedicated to the working life of an NSL traffic warden. After all the bad publicity in Westminster with the Hakim Berkani case ( all details on the Nutsville blog ) this page of puff was a welcome respite for NSL and read like an advertorial.

I particularly liked this paragraph:

Sarpong insists that he has never been set a quota or target. "There are lots of days when I don't issue any penalty notices," he claims. Which must make the daily beat pretty boring – does he feel a thrill when, after hours of blameless drivers, he spots a culprit?

There is a long pause. "I don't want to answer that," he says with the faintest of smiles.

Firstly I simply didn't believe there are days when no tickets are issued in a 12 hour shift. Then I wondered if that had happened in Barnet so I got my good friend Mr Mustard to put an FOI question in for me, as he is the expert in that area, and so he refined the question into a suitable form.

He asked how many full shifts had been carried out by Barnet's "traffic wardens" in February 2012 that had resulted in not a single ticket being issued. Now there are over 50 wardens and 28 or so shifts a month so that is 1400 chances to go 7 hours and not issue a ticket.

The answer "None" Yes that is right, not a single complete shift passed without at least one penalty charge notice being issued. Traffic warden on duty = certain penalty charge notice issuance.

So either Mr Sarpong is being economical with the truth ( and not with his tickets ) or NSL employees will be sitting with their feet up on rainy days in all the cafes of Barnet not issuing tickets when they take over on 1 May 2012.

If anyone in Enfield wants to ask the London Borough of Enfield for the statistics of tickets issued on each shift for the last year then be my guest. I think you can guess what the answer will be.

Remember, if you get a PCN, appeal it! Don't just pay without at least writing a nice letter to the council. The longer the better. If you can run to 3 or 4 pages of badly scrawled prose then you are doing your bit to clog up the system as someone has to read it all.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

More LIP service

Picture credit: BBC/Kudos

Continuing with my service to you of the LIP - Local Implementation Plan - we come on to Paid Parking. My comments in red and any bold, italics or underlining adding to Barnet Council text by me.

7.6.18 The forgoing section on residents permit generally applies also to business permits. They are also zone specific and primarily intended to assist businesses that have a need to base vehicles near their premises. A user-friendly system of application and renewal applies, and private vehicles used in connection with a business will be considered for business permits if the business can make a suitable case for this and confirm the vehicle is being used for business purposes.

7.6.19 A regulatory mechanism to deter unnecessary use is price; the fee from April 2005 being £300 per year. There is a limit of 3 permits per business. Now £500 for a specific vehicle registration or £800 for any vehicle registration in case you use hired vehicles regularly.

7.6.20 As with residents permits, the Council considers the value that a permit has to a permit holder, and that an equitable simple cross-borough single charge rate is most appropriate. i.e. one zone business permits cost the same in all zones, not that they can be used in all zones.
7.6.21 Any policy of introducing pro-active zone review will also take into account business parking provision. The Council anticipates that in future further regulation may be needed if take-up exceeds what can be reasonably accommodated, taking into account other needs, and will consider the use of needs-assessments having regard for what used the vehicles are put to, and/or giving consideration to the extent to which off-street parking is available.

7.6.27 Whilst steps are taken through regular market-testing to seek to ensure that the most robust machines are installed to maintain a service for customers, the Council will consider other options – in particular those that offer convenient cashless alternatives. The Council will seek to introduce any new payment regimes in parallel with pay and display so as to retain a pay-with-coin option as not all customers will have access to alternatives. So the council have known all along that offering only one payment choice was not a good idea.

7.6.28 The Council manages parking duration with a non-linear charging regime. Short-stay - less than an hour - is charged at a proportionately lower "per-minute" equivalent rate than the rate for medium-term stay countering the concern expressed by local businesses that the lack of cheap short-term parking may drive away passing and "impulse" trade. Longer stay has a proportionately higher charge thus encouraging turnover. The opposite is now the case in High Barnet Car Parks whose charges are:

30mins £1

1hour £2

90mins £3

over 90mins £5

which leads to the rather odd situation where the 91st minutes costs you £2 and such that stays of 90mins to 150mins cost more per minute than staying all day, although they both cost the same amount. After 2hrs 30mins the stay per minute is cheaper thus making a mockery of stated policy.

In considering tariff and occupancy the Council will take into account local circumstances, and amongst other measures will consider the use as an indicator of an 80% - 85% occupancy rate in line with LPAC recommendations in the past and subsequently endorsed in Traffic Management and Parking Guidance for London by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State has issued guidance that car park occupancy rates should be managed so that demand does not excess 85% during peak periods. That is certainly the case in Barnet for all the car parks that I drive past are half empty or more at any time on any day.

7.6.32 There are no current proposals to reduce the availability of long stay parking as it is not seen that where it is currently provided it is affecting availability of short stay or permit parking. This is taken to be a reflection of the situation in an outer-London borough whereby the capacity of streets is not subject to the same parking stress as an inner London authority and yet charges are being increased as if it is the case and comparisons are made with more central boroughs to justify price hikes.

7.6.33 In 2005/6 the Council will be seeking to identify funding to work with Waltham Forest, Enfield and Haringey (the North London Transport Forum members) with a view to introducing discounted or free parking for "green-fuelled" vehicles in an integrated manner across the borough boundaries, the aim being that a scheme covering several boroughs will be more attractive and be more likely to encourage motorists to invest in alternative-fuelled vehicles but we don't care anymore, we just want your money, so your charge has been increased from £15 to £50 for a resident's permit.

7.6.34 The Council does not consider free "limited stay" parking as a useful option for the borough as the enforcement of such parking places is entirely reliant of repeat visits by the same parking attendant who must log details of all legally parked vehicles. This is impracticable given the other commitments on the officer to patrol other streets. Time-restricted parking will therefore be regulated by means that require only a single visit to detect a contravention – currently pay and display. i.e. the residents are here for the convenience of traffic wardens and not the other way around. With pay and display having been abandoned wardens do now have to make two visits to detect a contravention in,say, Hampden Square where there is 30 minutes free parking and which businesses are demanding in other locations to stop them going out of business.

More soon.

In the meantime, if you get a parking ticket, appeal!

Yours appealing

Miss Feezance

Lines and signs - Strafford Rd grounds for appeal.

picture credit: www.notomob.co.uk

The enforcement of parking is meant to be all about fairness. However, I think it really hurts the council if they issue a parking ticket (penalty charge notice / PCN) and then have to cancel it. The officer might even have a little cry. What they should be doing is looking fairly at the situation and asking themselves if the ticket has been issued in honourable circumstances and if not, they should be delighted to cancel it. Enforcement is meant to be about keeping traffic moving not about raking in as much money as possible.

I am a great advocate of appealing if the lines or signs are wrong. The lines and signs are of generally standard format so that drivers from all over the country encounter uniform rules. Therefore if the signs or lines are not clear an appeal should be allowed; in legal terms ambiguity favours the party who has suffered by it.

I think I must have encouraged too many people to put in appeals where lines are not clear as the council has reacted. Look at this CPZ bay in Strafford Rd.

who stole the bay markings?

The white line you can see is the centre of the road. Where is the marking for the combined "residents / Pay by phone" bay? Completely erased. I watched a CEO (Civil Enforcement Officer / traffic warden) patrol this bay last week and he didn't even glance at the markings to check they were reasonable. All the cars had permits so he went on his way without dishing out any tickets, but he would have. If you have had a parking ticket in Strafford Rd send in an appeal. If you have paid for one recently ask for your money back as you have paid in error.

This will change soon but on Barnet Council's website it currently says:

Civil Enforcement Officers are not contractors – they are directly employed by the council. We aim to deliver a good quality service in a fair manner, and to provide help and assistance, but we are there to enforce restrictions if people disregard them.

So having directly employed CEOs was seen as a good thing. Bad luck, not any longer. NSL are coming and their dodgy tricks are legion. 

You have to ask yourself if Barnet Council don't actually trust NSL very much either. One of the tasks of NSL will be to maintain lines and signs. If a parking ticket is successfully appealed on the grounds that the lines or signs are incorrect then NSL will have to put them right, probably within a fixed period such as 30 days, so that closes the door to repeat appeals at the same location. Given that the success rate of fixing defective lines & signs is likely to be a Key Performance indicator in the contract I ask why three people are now going to be employed by Barnet Council to look at lines and signs?

1406 Parking Lines Signs Staff

The parking informnation supervisor (PIS) will earn between £30,001 and £32,800 and his/her two parking Information oficers (PIO) will earn between £22,221 and £24,646. Thus there is a salary bill oif around £77,000 and with on-costs of office space, national insurance, pension contributions of 24% and vehicles there will be no change from £150,000 p.a.

The point of their job is to defeat enough appeals against parking ticket appeals to cover the cost of employing them (as otherwise it would be cheaper to allow all technical signs & lines appeals). People who appeal on the grounds of invalidity are likely to do so at an early stage and their tickets will thus be worth half of the £60 lower rate contravention or £110 higher rate contravention, say a £45 average. If we divide the £150,000 by £45 then the PIS/PIOs will need to defeat 3,333 appeals between them in a year. That is 1,111 each across about 200 working days (and the officers have other things to do). So let us suppose these challenges are correct half of the time then each officer will have to deal with 1111*2 = 2,222 inspections each year all over the borough. So that is 11 sites a day to visit, photograph, take notes and measurements and then return to base to write a report ready to send to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service if necessary. No-one is going to be able to work to that schedule day in day out.

It is evident to me that these officers are going to cost more than they save. 

The commonsense answer, except in Barnet, would be to make sure that your parking contractor had a perfect line and sign maintence programme.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

East Barnet - the parking debate at the Chipping Barnet Residents Forum

I am indebted to Dan Hope of the Barnet Bugle for this interesting footage; Dan spends a lot of his time ferrying his impressive equipment from one meeting to the next.

It is a polite demolition of the council's plan to charge for a small car park in Church Hill, East Barnet, a secondary shopping location and of the method of payment.

Much commonsense is in evidence. Mostly from residents.

Cllr Barry Evangeli implores East Barnet residents to help him fight off Brian Coleman's plan for charges in the car park from The Barnet Bugle Ltd on Vimeo.

Let's all move to Ealing where they have a council that listens

New stop and shop proposals

picture credit www.ealing.gov.uk - Presumably a Stop & Shop shopper. Shop looks nice.

The council is soon to start consultation around extending the period of maximum stay for stop and shop bays at selected locations to allow motorists to stay beyond the current free period.

No decisions have yet been taken and full consultation will be carried out before any changes are implemented.

The proposals are intended to give extra flexibility to motorists and business customers so that they can stay a little longer, while continuing to prevent long stay and commuter parking.

Under the plans motorists would use the pay by phone system to extend their parking period.

The proposal will not make any amendments to the existing free stop and shop time. Motorists will be able to park for the initial free period in the same way as is currently practised. If they do not want to extent their stay they will not have to register for the pay by phone service or make any phone calls or send any text messages.

Motorists wanting to extend their stay beyond the current free period will use the council’s pay by phone service to extend their period of parking for a flat fee of £1.80, plus the service charge of 20 pence, which is applied by the telephone payment provider.

The proposal is to allow motorists to stay for an additional two hours in all cases. This means that in locations where there is currently a free period of 30 minutes the maximum stay will be two hours and 30 minutes, in cases where there is a free period of 60 minutes the maximum stay will be three hours and in cases where the free period is two hours, the maximum stay will be four hours.

A formal consultation will take place where the council will work with and involve the ward forums, local businesses and residents in the areas where it is proposed it might be suitable to trial the scheme. Everyone will have the opportunity to have their say or make any suggestions that they think may improve the scheme’s implementation.

The current proposed locations for consultation are:

• Lady Margaret Road, Greenford (O/S No. 462), on slip road
• The Uxbridge Road (Nr Ealing Common Station)
• Pitshanger Lane, W5
• Lady Margaret Road, Greenford (O/S No. 462), on highway
• Singapore Road
• The Broadway, Southall (O/S Lidl)
• The Broadway, Southall (O/S Lidl)
• Crown Street, Acton
• Horn Lane, Acton (Opposite Stuart Road)
• Leeland Terrace
• Alfred Road, Acton
• Ruislip Road, Greenford (O/S No.3)

What a pity that Barnet Council don't listen to businesses like Ealing do.

Could this be part of the reason why the shops of Ealing Broadway are so numerous?

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance

30 minutes free, or not? Hampden Sq N14 and Mowbray Parade HA8

Hampden SQ, N14

I see that, like everywhere else in Barnet, the traders of Hampden Sq are up in arms about parking. I don't think that their tactic of not paying their business rates is the correct one, but it is understandable. You lose the moral high ground by not paying your bills. A new strategy is required. However what is clear is that the traders are upset because their livelihoods are at risk. See the report in the Barnet Times here. 

Miss Feezance knows this area well as she used to work less than a mile down the road. There isn't much to keep a girl happy shopping here for hours but it is a useful local resource. I must go back and try the diner one day soon. I don't remember there ever being a problem parking there as the turnover of cars is rapid. All that is really needed is a 1 hour waiting restriction to stop the shopkeepers parking outside their shops and preventing their own customers from parking. The council should encourage shopkeepers to use the Osidge Lane car park and make it free if it isn't already free.

I found this link saying that the traders had asked for parking restrictions. If you are a trader from Hampden Sq please use the comment box below. So when meters existed it was easy to get a free ticket and place it in your car and it was more efficient for the council.

Now that there are no meters the situation is harder. The free 30 minutes still exist but does it say that on the sign? No it doesn't. The sign is at the top of the page. So most people think that to get free parking you have to register to PayByPhone and then use a text or a phone call to pay ( which costs a few pence ) and pay a 10p admin fee. Not quite free then, the free parking and it takes most of your free 30 minutes.

A friend asked the council if this was the case and here is the polite answer she received.

Thank you for sharing your query with this department.

Firstly may I apologise for the delay in responding to you. It is not the London Borough of Barnet’s intention to delay responding to an enquiry such as yours. We value your custom and feedback, and hope our relationship with you can continue in a positive light.

Having spoken with the Parking Enforcement Team I can confirm that at present there are only two locations within the borough that allow 30 minutes of free parking. The locations are Hamden Square N14 which you are already aware of and Mowbray Parade HA8.

The enforcement procedure for these locations are if a Civil Enforcement Officer observes a vehicle parked in a Payment to Park place, a period of 30 minutes observation must be given. If no payment is made after the 30 minutes a Penalty Charge Notice can be issued. On arrival at the above locations the driver need not display a Parking Voucher or call the PayByPhone service, you merely park up and return within 30 minutes to remove the vehicle.

I hope this email has been of some assistance to you.

Yours Sincerely

Parking Quality and Customer Service Officer

It is a pity that the council have not put up clearer signs.

If you have received a parking ticket and only stayed 30 minutes or less then you should appeal it. If you have already paid one in error then why not ask for your money back.

Shopkeepers: why not campaign for the removal of the CPZ? The council really cannot be making much money out of it.

Mowbray Parade HA8

I didn't know straight away where this Parade is. I looked on a map and it is on the A41 heading towards the Stonegrove Estate. I looked on Streetmap and it really is similar to Hampden Square in that it is just a few shops which simply need a short time restriction to encourage a rapid turnover of shoppers. The shopkeepers need to get together and talk to their councillors about another solution. We need these small parades as they are helpful for all the people who are at home in the day and they contribute to Big Society and society in general.

Yours appealingly

Miss Feezance 

Snow - parking tickets freeze

I don't recommend parking here

 Picture courtesy of Nancy Colella, Painter


Don't go buying a parking ticket today in Golders Green ( one of the few zones which operates on a Sunday ) or worry about parking on double yellow lines that are covered by snow because in order to issue a ticket the lines must be clearly visible to the CEO. Any lines that are covered in snow simply do not count. A motorist, who could be a stranger to the area, simply cannot be expected to know what colour of line, if any, is under 10cm of snow and where they start or finish.

Hopefully the CEO will not be coming out until the snow and subsequent slush has all gone. 

It is possible that you will return home in the snow and park in what you think is the residents parking bay and accidentally leave a wheel, or even your whole car, out of the bay ( similar to how the fog plays tricks with our memories ) and you are out at work on the day that the snow melts away and the CEOs are rushing around trying to get back up to quota and you then get a parking ticket. My advice is to appeal any such ticket on the grounds that you tried your best to abide by the law and that you moved your vehicle as soon as you could after the snow had cleared. The council has a duty to be fair and should cancel a ticket issued in such circumstances.

You also need to act sensibly and not park where you know it is silly or dangerous.

Yours appealingly


Miss Feezance